MONROE — Stephanie Gelman-Lippert considers herself lucky. She works from home, so the Elm Street resident has the luxury of putting her two sons, a kindergartner and a fourth-grader, on their school bus every morning, and greeting them when they get off in the afternoon.

But she’s also witnessed a bad behavior that she says is getting way too common — drivers who pass school buses that have their stop signs up to allow students to safely enter and exit the bus.

“I’ve noticed a big increase in the number of cars that just are not stopping,” Gelman-Lippert said. “I think the first week of school alone I counted three cars that did it.”

According to Connecticut State Police, state law makes mandatory that drivers stop for school buses that have their flashing red warning lights (and-or a stop sign) activated, whether they are approaching or following the school bus.

State police said fines for breaking this law start at $465 for a first offense.

Gelman-Lippert said that while bus passing isn’t an epidemic, it’s common enough that she’s worried for her sons. She said that if she sees a car coming down the road as her sons are about to cross the street to the bus stop, she makes them wait, even if the bus is stopped, with the appropriate warnings displayed.

“I just don’t trust people to stop,” she said.

Tough to catch

Monroe Superintendent of Schools Jack Zamary said this is a problem that he and other school officials are aware of.

“It’s a concern,” he said. “How widespread a concern, I don’t know. But people do it, and it’s unfortunate.”

However, it can be difficult to catch people breaking the law. Monroe Police Lt. Stephen Corrone said if police don’t actually witness someone passing a bus with a stop sign and flashing lights, there’s not much they can do, unless the bus driver involved gives them a report with the offending car’s license plate number, the date and time of the incident and other information.

Usually, Corrone said, All Star Transportation, the bus route that serves Gelman-Lippert’s neighborhood, reports these incidents directly to the Department of Motor Vehicles. But Gelman-Lippert said it’s asking a lot to ask bus drivers to take down all that information.

Gelman-Lippert said she’s reported her concerns to police, and Corrone confirmed that there are patrols in the area. Gelman-Lippert has been looking into another avenue as well — mounting cameras on the buses that could record offending motorists.

She said she spoke with Zamary and was told that the cameras had been considered, but for now weren’t considered a practical solution because of limitations within state laws.

Camera complications

Zamary said he’s spoken with school leaders in other districts, specifically Trumbull, that had used the cameras but abandoned doing so because state law restricts external bus video to just the license plate. The cameras can’t record the faces of the motorists in the cars.

Zamary said Trumbull officials told him drivers have used this loophole to deny that they were driving a car during a bus passing incident, and have gotten out of tickets.

“We continue to investigate this, and if somebody else can show us (the cameras are) effective, we might be more inclined to use them,” Zamary said.

In meantime, Gelman-Lippert has been investigating how to change the state law to possibly allow for the recording of drivers, and not just license plates. She has been in discussions with State Rep. State Rep. J.P. Sredzinski, a Republican who represents Monroe and Newtown.

Sredzinski said there are some bills in the pipeline — including HB 6393, An Act Concerning School Bus Safety and Passenger and Pedestrian Safety — where the language could potentially be shifted to address some of Gelman-Lippert’s concerns.

The original law limiting the filming to license plates was probably put in place due to privacy concerns, Sredzinski said. “But it’s part of our job as legislators to balance public safety with privacy,” he said.

And it’s safety that’s Gelman-Lippert’s biggest concern.

“It’s gotten to the point where I’m really fed up with it,” she said of the bus passing. “They’re not just breaking traffic laws. They’re endangering our kids.”

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